No festive cheer for U's

Brentford inflicted yet more misery on Colchester as their slip back towards the relegation zone continued with a Boxing Day defeat.

A torrid opening 15-minutes for Colchester saw them fall behind to a Marcello Trotta (4) goal, lose Josh Thompson to a sending off when he "denied a goalscoring opportunity" and then fall further behind to a Adam Forshaw (12) goal.

The U's got back into the game at the midway point of the first half when Drey Wright (23) scored, and had hope of forcing an equaliser when Brentford were also reduced to 10-men when Tom Adeyemi went for two yellow cards.

An equaliser couldn't be found and Brentford wrapped up a 3-1 win late on through Harlee Dean (85).

The official website will be the place to visit for a full report - click here.